Make a Windows shortcut to compare files in Visual Studio

I like that there is a “Compare” function right out-of-the-box in Visual Studio, and even though many regular developers will choose to download a third-party application for the job, it’s perfectly fine for me.

Two problems: First off, I couldn’t find a straightforward way to open “compare” in the Visual Studio IDE without right-clicking an existing item in a source control repository. And second, wouldn’t it be cool if we could put a shortcut to it on the Windows “Send to” context menu?

Changes in Management Studio keyboard shortcuts

A few keyboard shortcuts have changed in the code editor of the SQL Server 2014 Management Studio. Personally, I found this incredibly annoying because I’ve been using Ctrl+E for many years to execute a query, but now, all I got was

(Ctrl+E) was pressed. Waiting for the second key of chord...

.. in the status bar.